JJS 411

"Snow White" Almost Had a Dwarf Named "Deafy"

The "Huffington Post" has assembled a list of "21 'WTF' Things That Almost Happened to Disney Movies." Most of this stuff would've been BAD . . . so Disney's probably relieved that they ended up going in another direction.

Here are the highlights:

1. Disney wanted the SPICE GIRLS to sing "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" in "Hercules" . . . but thankfully, it didn't work out due to "scheduling difficulties."

2. The song "Part of Your World" was almost cut from "The Little Mermaid" because the kids in a test audience found it "boring." But it was received well by adults, so it stayed in.

3. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" could've featured dwarves named Hickey, Dirty, Dumpy and Deafy. (???) According to the early notes, "Deafy" would only hear a word or two of a conversation, leading to "comical situations."

As much as this representation would've DELIGHTED deaf audiences for years to come . . . in the end, Deafy was replaced with Sneezy.

4. Disney almost scrapped the iconic spaghetti dinner scene from "Lady and the Tramp" because WALT DISNEY had a feeling that "dogs would look absurd eating spaghetti." (???) But one of the animators changed Walt's mind.

5. Originally, "Pocahontas" was going to have a "talking turkey sidekick" named "Redfeather," who was going to be voiced by JOHN CANDY. But the character was dropped after John died in 1994.

6. "Aladdin" was originally designed to resemble MICHAEL J. FOX, but when a Disney exec didn't think he looked "attractive enough," they redesigned him to look like TOM CRUISE.

7. "Bambi" was going to be WAY bloodier . . . with the movie showing Bambi watching as his mother's carcass was dragged away, leaving behind a POOL OF BLOOD. Fortunately, they realized an off-screen death was traumatizing enough.

8. Early on, Sebastian . . . the talking crab in "The Little Mermaid" . . . was supposed to have a British accent. But they later changed it to a Caribbean one.

9. THE BEATLES were originally meant to voice the Vultures in "The Jungle Book", but at the time, JOHN LENNON decided he "didn't want to do an animated movie." Three years later, they did "Yellow Submarine".